Astronomy Unit Seminar - Silvia Dalla

When: Friday, March 19, 2021, 2:30 PM - 3:30 PM
Where: Online event

Speaker: Silvia Dalla (University of Central Lancashire)

Modelling the Propagation of Solar Energetic Particles

Solar Energetic Particles (SEPs) are ions and electrons accelerated during flares and coronal mass ejections at the Sun. They can escape from the corona into interplanetary space and may reach near-Earth locations, where they pose a significant radiation risk to humans in space and satellite hardware. This talk will review our understanding of the origin and transport of SEPs, based on a large body of data gathered by spacecraft detectors and on theoretical models. It will focus on recent work on test particle simulations of the propagation of relativistic solar protons, showing that accurate modelling requires a 3D approach, including guiding centre drifts and the influence of the heliospheric current sheet.